Solar Cell Conversion to Electricity

History of Photovoltaics
A material or device that is capable of
converting the energy contained in photons of
light into an electrical voltage and current is
said to be photovoltaic.
1839Invention of Solar Photovoltaic Effect by
Edmund Becquerel, a French
Physicist
1876

Adam and day invented cells made of

Selenium (1 to 2% efficient)

1904Paper by Einstein on Photo Electric Effect

History of Photovoltaics
1923Nobel Prize awarded to Albert Einstein
1954Bell Telephone Laboratories produced a
silicon
PV cell with 4% efficiency
1958The U.S Vanguard space satellite used a
small
array to power its radio

Solar Photovoltaic Conversion

Made of Silicon - abundant & safe material
Direct Conversion of sunlight to electricity
(DC)
Instant conversion
Production only at day, when sun shines
No storage inside a solar cell
Battery is used for external Storage & night
time use
Available in Various shapes, colors &
capacities

Solar PV Electricity
Advantages

Disadvantages
Energy Independence High initial Costs
Free fuel
Low conversion
Minimum
efficiency
maintenance
Large surface area
Maximum availability requirements
Generate energy
Technology not fully
where
matured
you need it
Less system
Less power loss
reliability
Modular
Lack of service &

 Silicon has 14 protons in its nucleus, and

so it has 14 orbital electrons as well. its
outer orbit contains four valence electrons
that is, it is tetravalent.
In pure crystalline silicon, each atom forms
covalent bonds with four adjacent atoms
in the three-dimensional tetrahedral
pattern

Electronic configuration of Si

Crystalline silicon
forms a threedimensional
tetrahedral
structure

 CONDUCTION IN SEMICONDUCTORS
At absolute zero temperature, silicon is a perfect
electrical insulator. There are no electrons free to
roam around as there are in metals.
At elevated temperatures, especially at the
temperatures where solar cells operate, electrons
can gain enough energy to escape from their
bonds.
When this happens, the electrons are free to move
about the crystal lattice and participate in
conduction.
At room temperature, a semiconductor has enough
free electrons to allow it to conduct current.

 When an electron gains enough energy to

participate in conduction (is "free"), it is at
a high energy state.
When the electron is bound, and thus
cannot participate in conduction, the
electron is at a low energy state.
Therefore, the presence of the band
between the two atoms introduces two
distinct energy states for the electrons.

 The band gap is the gap in energy

between the bound state and the free
state, between the valence band and
conduction band.
The lower energy level of a semiconductor
is called the "valence band and the
energy level at which an electron can be
considered free is called the "conduction
band" .

 An electron with enough thermal energy can

jump from valance band to conduction band.
The excitation of an electron to the conduction
band leaves behind an empty space for an
electron. An electron from a neighboring atom
can move into this empty space.
When this electron moves, it leaves behind
another space. The continual movement of the
space for an electron, called a "hole,- positively
charged particle through the crystal structure

 Consequently, the excitation of an

electron into the conduction band results
in not only an electron in the conduction
band but also a hole in the valence band.
Thus, both the electron and hole can
participate in conduction and are called
"carriers".

 Silicons conductivity at normal

temperatures is still very low, and so it is
referred to as a semiconductor.
By adding minute quantities of other
materials, the conductivity of pure
(intrinsic) semiconductors can be greatly
increased.

THE p-n junction

As long as a solar cell is exposed to
photons with energies above the band gap
energy, holeelectron pairs will be created.
The problem is, of course, that those
electrons can fall right back into a hole,
causing both charge carriers to disappear.
To avoid that recombination, electrons in
the conduction band must continuously be
swept away from holes.

 In PVs this is accomplished by creating a

built-in electric field within the
semiconductor itself that pushes electrons in
one direction and holes in the other.
To create the electric field, two regions are
established within the crystal.
pure (intrinsic) silicon is purposely
contaminated with very small amounts of a
trivalent element from column III of the
periodic chart;
on the other side, pentavalent atoms from
column V are added.

Phosphorous
Doping
Free electrons need to be swept
out to prevent recombination
Also to increase number of free
electrons, doping is carried out
Doping with Phosphorous (5) to
get additional electrons
1 phosphorus atom per 1000
silicon atoms
n-type layer with ve charge

Boron Doping
Boron (3) doping to
get additional holes
p-type layer with
+ve charge
1 boron atom per 10
million silicon atoms

 Undoped material has an equal number

of electrons and holes. The very small
number of carriers results in a low
conductivity.
Doping the silicon with, a group of V
element such as phosphorous adds extra
electrons. The extra electrons suppress the
number of holes. The carriers with the
greatest number (in this case electron) are
called the majority carriers. The other
carriers (in the case holes) are called the
miniority carriers.

Absorption of Light
The effect of the three classes of photons
on the semiconductor;
Eph<EGPhotons with energyEphless than
the band gap energyEGinteract only
weakly with the semiconductor, passing
through it as if it were transparent.

 Eph=EGhave just enough energy to create

an electron hole pair and are efficiently
absorbed.
Eph>EGPhotons with energy much greater
than the band gap are strongly absorbed.
However, for photovoltaic applications, the
photon energy greater than the band gap
is wasted as electrons
quicklythermalizeback down to the
conduction band edges.